Monday, February 25, 2008

Starting Point: Fifth Street in Santa Rosa

Evelyn McDaniel Gibb, author of Two Wheels North, has been very helpful to us in planning our ride. Here is her description of the starting point for the boys in 1909, which we will do our best to recreate in 2009:

Vic and Ray were given a town send-off by Ed Finley, Editor of the local newspaper, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, on the morning of August 9, 1909. The little ceremony was held in front of the S.R.P.D. office on Fifth Street. Finley told the group of townspeople gathered around theyoung bicyclists that these adventurers were about to start their trip through three states and much unfamiliar country to visit the A.Y.P.E. in Seattle, Washington. Then Mr. Finley himself took the official photographs of Vic and Ray as they were about to set off. They rode down Fifth Street past the newspaper office the short distance to Mendocino Avenue where they turned right one block to Fourth Street. On Fourth Street they turned left to ride past the newly built Court House (the original was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake), and followed Fourth Street east out of town.